Kodiak Bears Eat Whale | National Geographic

Here on Kodiak Island in Alaska, it's business as usual for Kodiak brown bears, the largest of all brown bears, playing, running, fighting, and using their powerful sense of smell to search for food, especially salmon. We've all seen the ubiquitous films of bears with salmon hanging out of their mouths. An adult bear can catch up to 30 fish a day, putting on two to three pounds of fat. But don't forget, it's good fat. Fresh salmon is, after all, full of omega-3 fish oil, as nutritionists love to tell us. But sometimes an extraordinary meal appears. Bear heaven, or whatever else you want to call it. I don't know. Nirvana? Valhalla? A place where bears can discover culinary bliss. You've heard the phrase, happier than a bear eating a whale carcass, right? No? Well, actually, I just made that up. But imagine how happy you'd be if you were hungry and suddenly you came upon a piece of meat that's at least 30 times the size of your own body. We're talking about the happiest happy meal on the planet. Now, this baleen whale carcass isn't exactly fresh. In fact, well, it's a little on the gamey side. But if you're a bear, you don't care. You're a quantity guy. Quality doesn't really figure into it. I mean, you're an opportunistic feeder. Fresh, rotten, what's the diff? All that really matters is size. Here's a meal you can actually climb on like a jungle gym. There's enough for everybody. Excuse me, didn't I just say there's enough for everybody? Now, play nice. And after the meal, the wallow. After this Kodiak has stuffed itself, it rolls in the carrion. It luxuriates in what it can't eat. Bear experts don't know why bears do this, but I mean, come on, isn't it obvious? If you were confronted with a vat holding a million gallons of chocolate ice cream, wouldn't you eat your fill, dive in, wallow around, and immerse yourself in the pure joy of having way, way too much? You bet you would.